Son is off to work. Looked high and low for his work shoes. Turned out they were in the front closet. If you knew how rare that was, you'd laughing with me.

Mr Cullen woke up from his nap, but was obviously not ready to get up yet. So, he is in his bed until Sullen goes away and is replaced by Cullen.

The boys got some good progress made on their room today. I just wish their bookshelves had come in. Perrin is matching his socks from the laundry and I just taught him to fold the tops down to keep them together. Before that he had so much fun helping me make a smoothie for everyone. It's an all green smoothie and very tasty.

We (which means they under my supervision) got the stuffed toys, the books, and the puzzles all picked up and put away. All their summer clothes are sorted, fit them, folded, and put away. We'll go back into the fray tomorrow and deal with the little toys like cars, etc. You know, there really is a floor in there.

We also made brownies. The boys had fun but it is such a bad thing for me. I love love love brownies.

Lotus, can you mulch where you planted to keep the ground moist? What are you planting?

Gail, how has your day been?

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"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." -Roger Caras

I did it! Only hours and hours of planning and trying and bending and lifting and getting sewer sludge all over my feet. Ugh. Wore rubber gloves and probably used about 10 pair in the process.

Got my neighbor to help me lift the heavy drainboard sink off the blocks and move one set of blocks. Was heavier than I remember, but I took 2 pain pills after and maybe I'll live.

Took a good look at the 'cleanout' pipe end and realized it had rusted and crumbled over the years (1944 house original plumbing there). Took some 6 foot plant stakes (I'd used them in the sump pump to clear it) and added a 3rd one to the other two taped together. So I now had a 18 foot pole. Shoved it in the cleanout and immediately got sludge, water, gunk, leaves, etc. Might even be a lizard or two in there somewhere since the end has been open since 1998. Wasn't a problem until a month or so ago when I noticed soapy water coming out of the cleanout end near the Outdoorises water dish. THEN I knew it was the pipe, not their water causing the puddle there.

So I wiggled the long pole and hit some resistance and wiggled and pulled and shoved and more gunk came out. THEN I realized the pole was too short. This cleanout goes diagonal from the back of the house to the front corner so it's about 60 feet long.

Neighbor ran down to his house and got 2, 8 foot metal poles. I taped one of them to the plant stakes and now had 25 feet of pole. Jammed that in and again hit resistance. Worked on it for about 20 minutes. Then I kept having my neighbor turn on the water in the sink so I could see if it was clearing the other way. I could tell if it didn't back up and if the water didn't come out the end I was working on.

Finally got almost no water coming out my end and decided that we could block the cleanout. Looked for something pliable (like a huge cork) but found nothing in my stash of parts. Ran off to the Home Despot and nobody there could tell me where to find corks. Duh. Finally one guy took us to another guy who actually KNEW where they were. Hooray.

Unfortunately, the largest cork, was no bigger than a thermos cork and I needed one much larger. The guy suggested a 'pressure tester' contraption that plumbers use to see about leaks. It looked like it might work so I got that. Then I found..tada..a HUGE cane tip. Yup the old squishy white tips for canes and bought a 2 pack. I estimated that would be better for what I had looked at inside that crumbling pipe.

Soooo then I insisted we stop for FOOD. Hadn't eaten all day and it was 1 pm by now. Ugh. Had a nice Prime Rib Benedict at Carrows and then back home to play with my plugs.

Neighbor was smart. He just got out of the car and said 'see ya later' and off he went. I guess he had had enough of being the helper.

So I jammed the cane tip in the hole, hit it with a hammer and tried running water. It had a few serious water spouts. So, I looked for something squishier to wrap over the plug and came up with some bubble wrap. It WORKED. Wrapped it, jammed it in, hit it with the hammer, turned on the water and NO drips.

Then I ran drain cleaner down the sink, waited, flushed it with hot water for 10 minutes and I think, thinking hard, that I have it fixed. Yes! For now it's holding and water is draining just fine in the kitchen sink. Hope this is the fix and I don't have to do any more stuff anytime soon.

Then I went out and sprayed Lysol over everything I'd used (hammer, poles, scissors, and all over the ground). Now I wait for the water puddle to sink in which may take awhile since it's been dripping for so long out there. THEN fresh dirt on top and put the cat's water dish back and block the plug and it's bubble wrap with something so the raccoons don't 'pull the plug' on me.

Happy camper when I finally get something working. Quick fix for me all the time.